Team Ethiopia Heads to Beijing

The inside story of the world's top team

The sole purpose of such an early time, compared to the team's usual 7:30 a.m. start, was to acclimatize for Edinburgh's colder climate. "The aim was a good one, and it benefited us," says Kostre. Ethiopia's temperate climate and cool nights in the central highlands around Addis Ababa accommodate such goals, but preparing for Beijing's hot, humid and polluted conditions will be the team's biggest challenge.

"There were difficult weather conditions in Osaka," says Defar. "It's being said Beijing will be worse." The team recognizes the special attention this will require. "We've talked about heading somewhere hot to prepare," says Tirunesh Dibaba.

"If the Olympic committee has the funds, we hope to go there and spend even one week there," says Kostre. "Otherwise, we will attempt to prepare in locations in our own country with heat and humidity. The problem is that in such places, there isn't a track. On the other hand, we don't have an indoor track, but we fielded seven athletes at these last world indoor championships and got six medals."

The lesson of the 2007 Mombasa world cross country championships, where heat and humidity felled the Ethiopian team, is a recent and painful memory. "We studied that mistake," says Kostre, who hopes to avoid a repeat at the Olympics, and believes the ideal situation is for the team – or if necessary, a select group – to make a short trip abroad but base its primary Olympic training at home. "We don't want to lose the advantage we have at altitude and our hemoglobin," he says.

Beijing's conditions are on the minds of many athletes, figuring, for example, in Bekele's hesitation about attempting a double in Beijing. "It's not easy, and I understand the weather condition is difficult, so I realize I have to focus on one event," he says, but besides that, he is not unduly concerned about the conditions. "The effect of such things is on all competitors," he says.

Marathon Issues

The weather will most affect the longest distance, the marathon. "We hear and read in the newspapers that it's going to be very difficult," said Gete Wami after placing third in the April London marathon despite suffering a fall mid-race. Unlike Gebrselassie, Wami said at the time that she planned to run the Beijing marathon. "I have no asthma problems, and the pollution exists for everyone, as does the heat," she said. "Haile has problems with breathing."

"I had planned to run Beijing, but I have to think about which one is better for me, the marathon or the 10,000," said Gebrselassie just before the African championships. "I went to Beijing and looked at the weather there, the circumstances there. It's not easy for me . . . If I go there, I will be back with nothing."

"To come from the marathon and go down to the 10,000 and compete will be very difficult," warns Kostre. He also fears other stars on Ethiopia's roster like Wami and Chicago champion Berhane Adere will pull out of the Olympic marathon as a result of Beijing's conditions.

The marathon team faces additional challenges before Beijing. Many marathoners have been training on their own, and not with the federation – many of them, including Wami, under the supervision of her husband, Getaneh Tessema, a representative of Jos Hermens' Netherlands-based Global Sports Communication. "We prefer to continue to train privately," says Wami, who mentions some of Ethiopia's top 2008 marathoners as training companions, including Deriba Merga, the 2007 Fukuoka runner-up, and Tsegaye Kebede, the 2008 Paris champion. "Since I have a fast time, I'm confident I will make the team," said Merga after placing sixth in London in 2:06:38.

Wami's 2:25:37 London time trails the 2008 clockings of five Ethiopian women, including Dubai champion Adere (2:22:42) and runner-up Bezunesh Bekele (2:23.09) and Boston and Houston champion Dire Tune (2:24:40 in Houston), but experience and performances from the preceding year (when Wami ran 2:21:45 in London) carry some weight in marathon selections. "The veterans have the experience and the talent, but the young ones lack experience even if they have the times," says Kostre.

The significance of the Olympic event is not lost on the athletes. "The marathon is the king of running, and in our country's history, it's Abebe Bikila and Mamo Wolde who brought great honor to the country, and we hope to emulate them," says Wami.

On track for Beijing

While the selection and preparation of the Beijing marathon squads remains to be sorted out, the Ethiopian distance track athletes are on their way to a promising start all around. Early in the season, the Hengelo runs of Sileshi and Gebrselassie (10,000m); Bekele (5000); and Burka, Melkamu and Belaynesh Fekadu (women's 5000) topped the world lists. The post-African championships Olympic buildup is underway. "I have a responsibility to make the Ethiopian people happy with my performance and I'm going to see to it that it is going to happen," Defar says.

With several months' concerted work under their belts, Ethiopia's athletes will head to Beijing bearing their nation's hopes, and their own ambitions. "What athlete is there who doesn't dream of winning the Olympics?" asks Tufa.